Sermon presented by Richard Kennebeck on February 8, 2014 in the Cincinnati East, Ohio congregation. 

 

You know I've been doing a lot of work around the house lately, been doing a lot of fixing. It's amazing what minus 4 degrees can show you that plus 4 degrees doesn't around your house, as far as, you know, making those upgrades to areas that maybe aren't insulated quite as well. Also been making some upgrades and fixing my basement around the house, trying to get it kind of prepared for us to be able to enjoy it more. But, you know, we as humans, we're always fixing things. You know, you're fixing your house, you're fixing your car, you're fixing your hair, you're fixing your clothes, you're fixing your marriage. You know, we have to fix things because humanly things break. There's nothing physical in this world that doesn't need fixing eventually, doesn't need some help. Things just break in this physical world. Nothing lasts forever.

Remember when you were a small child, and you fell down, skinned your knee, your parent could fix that. They could fix just about anything. It's amazing how they could do it. If a fix didn't fix it, well, you know, maybe a cookie or ice cream cone did. Just amazing how that worked.

When I grew up, I remember my dad. If anything broke around the house, he could fix it. He was always good at working, and it always seemed no matter what could happen, he could fix it. We had one of our cars that stopped working. He tore the whole engine apart, put it all back together, and it worked.

When I was, you know, about 8 or 10 I had a three-speed bicycle. It had a shift on the column. I took apart my shifter, put it back together. I had a couple of pieces left over. It didn't work. He fixed it. He even brought home things from work because they knew he could fix things. Seems there was nothing he couldn't fix. And, you know, after I got married, I became the one that was the fixer. If the washing machine died, I fixed it. If the car stopped working, well, I got somebody else to fix it. But I was in charge of making sure that it got fixed.

My children came to me when their bicycles, their chains would come off or their tires would have a flat, I fixed it. And I also gave them the hugs and the kisses that fixed their scraped knees. When my daughter was 3 years old, I even had to fix something where she -- I got a call, frantic from my wife at work. She said my daughter's finger is down the hole in our kitchen in the floor. We can't get it out. I rode my bicycle to work. It was 3 miles home. I came home. They were all in tears. I fixed it. We all have our fixers in life, people that come and help us, that we have to go to help fix our lives when things are broken, whether it's physically actually fix something, or just for an ear to listen to us as we need to talk to them.

You know, and sometimes we get yourselves into situations that are just too big for us humanly to fix. We get sick, illnesses. We just can't fix those ourselves. But we've got a loving Father that is just like our physical father. He can fix those things. He can make them work. He can provide a way of escape from those in our lives. You know, when my wife got cancer about ten years ago, it was something we couldn't fix. We prayed. We fasted. She was anointed. We asked God for His help to fix this, and we knew He could. We knew His loving hand. He could come and fix that. He could make the outcome what He wanted, and He did. She's well.

But then in 1984, when my dad died, he got sick, and he died. He couldn't fix that. All my life he had fixed things, but that was something he couldn't fix. That's something I couldn't fix. There was no fix in this world for that. And that's what I'd like to talk to you a little bit about today is, "The Great Fixers." That's one of the names I call God the Father and Jesus Christ our brother. They're The Great Fixers. They're not really unlike our physical fathers and those that we go to to fix, but They can fix things which nobody else can fix. Their power is unlimited, as opposed to our human ways of fixing things.

You know, human fixes are incomplete, and they're often short term, short lived and temporary. As humans, we come across all kinds of solutions to what we think are problems that might fix the problems that this world has. We often go to drugs or alcohol to relieve the stresses of maybe boredom, or we become workaholics to cope with maybe deficiencies we have in our life. If we have problems in our marriages, we might fix them by going to pornography or going to somebody else. We may overeat, and we may abuse power. You know, but none of these fix the problems. They don't fix them at all. They may fix some of the effects, but usually they don't even do that. They may short term help us cope with something, but it's not long term. It's not a true fix. As humans, we can't fix things, and we don't fix things.

You know, World War II is a case in point. World War II ended with -- or World War I ended with the Treaty of Versailles. That Treaty of Versailles was forced upon Germany. England, Britain and France thought that this would fix the problem. Germany could never rise again to go to war because of the damage they had done. This Treaty of Versailles put upon Germany things which Germany could not really handle. They were required to accept all the guilt, and they were required to pay huge sums of money, which they could not support. But we thought it was a fix. Humans thought it was a fix. But, yet, little more than 20 years later, what happened? World War II. That's like many of our fixes, short term. They're short term.

You know, so many solutions of mankind are summed up in Proverbs 14:12. You know, this scripture, or the words of it, are actually recorded twice in Proverbs. It's also in Proverbs 16:25. I don't think Solomon just accidentally cut and paste twice, you know. I think it's there for a reason.

Proverbs 14:12 - There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.

There's a fix that seems right to man, but the end thereof is death. You know, there's a big difference between God's way and man's way. A huge difference between those two.

As humans, we're looking for short-term fixes a lot of times rather than to fix the actual cause. You know, crimes continue. No matter what kind of laws we put in place or what kind of law enforcement we put in place, crime still continues. Drug abuse, drug addiction, sex addiction, alcohol addiction all continue, even though we've got all kinds of treatment plans. These plans work, but they don't solve the problem. They don't truly solve the problem.

We still have wars, like we did ten years ago, 100 years ago, 1,000 years ago, from man's beginning. Very little has changed. Even though we have United Nations now and we had League of Nations around the time of World War II, things still happen. Human fixes are incomplete and short lived, and often go in the wrong direction and follow the path that satan wants. They don't really fix the original problems.

You know, there's only one true way to fix problems, and that's God's way. God's way is the only way to fix the problems. You know, even before Adam and Eve were created on this earth, God put into place a master plan that had a solution, that had a fix to what He knew this world was going to go through. God had a plan that would -- and design that would allow us as humans to become His sons and daughters. His plan was never flawed. His plan never needed a fix. It's us, we humans, that needed the fix. His plan never needed a course correction. We do. We're the ones. They've been perfect from the beginning. We're the ones that are flawed and need the fix. God is the great creator. He's the great designer, the great master planner, and He's the great fixer. He's the only one that truly can fix this world.

You know, David understood this, understood that God was the great fixer. We see it in action in 1 Samuel 17. We know this is the story of David and Goliath. David wasn't much of a match for Goliath physically. David knew this. Goliath was a huge man. He was a monster of a man, and he knew military tactics. He was a fortress unto himself. He was a champion. David was a shepherder. Saul even thought that he'd maybe help David when David said he'd go up against Goliath by saying, "Here. Here's all my armor, put it on." A fix. But David knew that it wouldn't really work for him.

Let's drop down to verse 45 of 1 Samuel 17. You know, it’s at this point just before here where Goliath had made fun of David. You know, "Who am I? A dog? Send this little person out here against me?" But David knew something better.

1 Samuel 17:45 - Then David said to the Philistine, "You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin." That's what Goliath was coming with. His solution to winning the battle was physical armor. Physical sword, physical things. "But I, David, come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied."

David's solution was God. He knew God would win the battle for him.

Verse 46 - "This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you. And this day I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.

Verse 47 - Then all this assembly shall know that the Lord does not save with sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord's, and He will give you into our hands."

David realized armies don't win wars. God does. If you want to say it, God fixed the battle. He fixed the outcome; and He can, even before the outcome of the battle. David knew the only true solution to this wasn't a mighty army. It was really having God back him, having God as his partner in this battle. You know, God's fixing us now. God is fixing us now. We are fixer-uppers. We come before God as fixer-uppers. We're all broken. We're all sinners, and God's in the process of fixing us up. He's in the process of building us into sons and daughters, glorious sons and daughters that will join His family. He's in the process of taking this tavern that we are, and as we start out, and turning us into a temple that will hold His Holy Spirit, where His spirit can live, where He can live inside of us. And that whole part, that whole fixer-upper starts with the payment of the sins that Jesus Christ has done for us, pictured by the Passover.

Now, we know from Romans 3:23 that we all sin, come short of the glory of God. And from Romans 6:23, that the wages of sin is death, but the gift is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. That's the gift. We're all sinners. But Christ wants to fix us. We can see from these that we're under the death penalty. We are dead men walking. We've already been sentenced. Satan enjoys that sentence. But Christ died for us for that penalty. He brought us back from that sentence of death.

Turn with me to Romans 5:8-11, and I'm going to actually read this in the New Living Translation, because I think it makes it a little bit clearer.

Romans 5:8 - But God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.

Verse 9 - And since we have been made right in God's sight by the blood of Christ, He will certainly save us from God's condemnation.

Verse 10 - For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of His Son while we were still His enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of His Son.

Verse 11 - So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.

Rather than being enemies of God, we've been in the process of being fixed through Jesus Christ to be friends rather than enemies of God. That's part of the plan from the very beginning. That's the solution you and I have for paying the penalty of sins, of the sins which we've done. Jesus Christ came and paid that penalty. You know, during the -- when we were watching the Bible study this past week, and I was thinking during that, you know, what was it probably like that moment in time when God and what was to become Jesus Christ realized that He would have to come down and become human? Something that was totally new to anything They'd done before. But the realization of that, I'm sure it had to be quite something. But that was also the understanding -- They understood that in order for Them to have sons and daughters in Their family, that was the only way it would work. That was the only way it would work.

We're all under that penalty, but we're all being fixed. And as a result of that reconciliation through Jesus Christ we can develop that relationship with God our Father and with Jesus Christ. You know, it really provides us the hope and assurance of our future, of becoming eternal, of looking forward to eternal life and that gift of the kingdom of God. Not only are we being fixed now, but God wants to share this fix with all of humanity.

You know, an important point to remember is that it isn't just all about us. It's also about your brother, your sister, your dentist, your doctor, and the other 7 billion people in this world. It's about them too. God's plan that He put into place in the very beginning was about them too. He's not just fixing us now, but He's got a plan in place to fix this whole world. God wants everyone to come to that understanding and the knowledge and to have a chance to be a son and daughter of Him.

Let's turn to John 1:29. This is just a short verse we'll read here, but it's very powerful. This is a point where John is talking about the baptism of Jesus, and it says in John 1:29

John 1:29 - The next day John saw Jesus coming towards him, and said, "Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!"

Not just my sin, not just the sin of those people that He's working with in this day and time, but the sin of the whole world. He didn't die just for His friends. He died for everyone, the ultimate price, so that they could be called and made sons of God. You know, His sacrifice is available to everyone in its due time, to everyone.

Turn just a little bit over to 1 John 2:2. It says:

1 John 2:2 - And He, Christ, Himself is the propitiation for our sins." Other translations put that He Himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins, the payment for our sins, and not just ours only, but also the whole world.

Christ's sacrifice and along with it the Holy Spirit and eternal life will be made available to everyone during the millennium in the second resurrection time period if they haven't had a chance during this time period. It will be at that point that God will be able to fix this world for everyone else. They'll have a chance to repent and receive the Holy Spirit and the opportunity to be eternal living beings. They'll all have -- all of humanity, that chance.

In Luke 4:17-21, this is a point where Jesus is announcing to the world that He has come as that Messiah prophesied in Isaiah 61. He's telling this on the Sabbath to a synagogue in His hometown of Nazareth.

Luke 4:17 - And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written: 

Verse 18 - "The spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed;

Verse 19 - To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.

Verse 20 - Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, 'Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.'

Jesus only read the first portion of that prophesy, the only portion that was about His first coming. But Isaiah 61 goes on to describe the second coming and what will happen after that. So let's go ahead and turn to the rest of the story. Isaiah 61:3-4. And this talks about a time, the millennium and thereafter. Tells us how Christ is going to fix the sadness and the sorrow of the world at the time.

Isaiah 61:3 - to console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.

Verse 4 - And they shall rebuild the old ruins, and it goes on and talks about the rebuilding of cities, the rebuilding of the land, looking forward to the fixing of this world.

You know, God looks forward to that, being able to take away from this whole world the sadness, the sorrow, the pain, the difficulty, and bring in its place peace, prosperity and joy. And to be able to give it to everyone, not justice.

Not only are we being fixed now, not only does God want to fix all of humanity or provide that for all of humanity, but the whole creation itself desires and looks forward to being fixed. The whole creation itself desires to be fixed. We're not the only fixer-uppers. This world is a fixer-upper. The physical earth is a fixer-upper.

Let's turn back to Romans 8 where we can see this. Romans 8 verse 19. And I'm going to, again, read this in the New Living Translation, because this talks about this world and how its need for being fixed and where that cause came from.

Romans 8:19 - For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who His children really are.

Verse 20 - Against its will, all creation was subjected to God's curse. Now, this is talking about the curse that happened at the time of Adam and Eve, when they were pushed out of the Garden of Eden. And the curse was put upon the earth. All creation was subjected to God's curse. But with eager hope

Verse 21 - the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God's children in glorious freedom from death and decay. Glorious freedom from death and decay.

Verse 22 - For we know that all creation has been groaning as in pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Have you ever heard somebody groan in pain, when it hurts so bad, they really may not even be able to cry anymore? It's a horrible sight to see. It's a horrible feeling. It's such a deep pain and emotional anguish. And that's what the scripture likens this earth, looking forward to its recreation and it being fixed. It groans, just as we do groan, for a different way of life, a different body.

Let's turn to Isaiah 51 where we can see a little bit more of the prophesy of this Isaiah 51. Talks about this happening, talks about the time of the millennium, after the return of Christ to this earth, and the beauty and the peace that will be here at that time.

Isaiah 51:3 - For the Lord will comfort Zion -- that's Jerusalem and Israel, and eventually this whole earth -- He will comfort all her waste places; He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness will be found in it, thanksgiving and the voice of melody.

I don't know if Melody Porter's here, but we know she's going to be there. "The voice of melody." And what's more beautiful and uplifting than a beautiful song? This won't be a temporary fix of this earth. It will be a long-term fix.

You know, several years ago I went to Israel and we had a guide on our tour, and this guide was showing us around Israel, and he referenced Isaiah 51. And he pointed to these beautiful lush fields that they have in Israel that are growing. And he said, "This is the fulfillment of that. In Israel, we've been able to fulfill that," because they've done great irrigation. But yet, there's almost no Jordan River anymore. Virtually all the water is being used for irrigation. But, you know, if there was truly a dry spell and the waters dried up, they wouldn't be able to irrigate.

What God's talking about here is a true fix, not irrigation. And we often as humans think we can bring to pass the prophesies that God has put into place, but we only see those and take care of those as temporary physical things. You know, we see that God wants to fix us now, and eventually he wants to fix humanity, all of humanity, and even this earth, but are you taking advantage of it? Are you allowing God to fix you in His way? Are you allowing God to fix you in His way? We need to allow Him to do that, to fix us in His way, not in the way that we think we should go about being fixed.

You know, I remember when I was young and was looking at baptism. I thought, okay, before I can be baptized, I've got to do this thing, this thing, this thing, make sure I'm not doing this, and this and this anymore. And then I can start looking at being baptized. I was trying to fix myself my way. In effect, I was making Christ's sacrifice of none effect, because I was trying to make my own righteousness there. But to truly be fixed, I've got to let God and Christ fix me and see how They want to fix me, and learn how They want to go about doing that. You know, we can't try to become righteous on our own. It just doesn't work. That's right to make it our own plan. Not God's plan.

Let's turn to 2 Kings 5. We see an example of a man that tried to do it his way, or rather actually almost try -- almost did not receive a solution or a fix because he wouldn't do it God's way. This is the story of Naaman. He was a commander in the army of Syria, and God had apparently been helping this commander because it indicates in 2 Kings 5 that God had been working with him and he was a mighty commander. There was only one problem. He had leprosy. And at that time, leprosy was a horrendous thing. There was really no cure for it.

But, you know, in one of his raids into Israel, he captured a young Israelite girl and brought her back, and that girl served in his household. And one day that girl talked to Naaman's wife and said, you know, there's a prophet in Israel. You could be healed. Naaman apparently mentioned that to the king of Syria. The king of Syria sent a letter to the king of Israel and said here -- along with a bunch of gold and clothes -- and he said, "We want to be healed. We want Naaman to be healed of this leprosy."

And the Israelite king was afraid of this. He thought the Syrians were just trying to pick a fight and go to war. And he rent his clothes. And Elisha heard about this, and Elisha sent back to the king of Israel and said, "Send him to me. Send him to me." So let's go ahead and enter into this story in 2 Kings 5:9.

2 Kings 5:9 - Then Naaman went with his horses and chariot, and he stood at the door of Elisha's house.

Verse 10 - And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, "Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored to you, and you shall be clean."

Sounds like a simple fix to me. It was the fix that God had chosen.

Verse 11 - But Naaman became furious, and went away and said, "Indeed, I said to myself, 'He will surely come out to me, and stand and call upon the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place, and heal the leprosy.'

Naaman had an idea of how it should be done. Said this is how I'm going to be healed. This is how my fix is going to be. This is how my plan is going to be. This is going to be something magic.

Verse 12 - Are not the Abanah and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?" So he turned and went away in rage.

He was deciding not to use God's fix, not to take advantage of God's solution. It would have fixed his leprosy. But he's choosing against it. He wanted a great show, something magical. Some whiz bang thing. And, yet, God said something, wash yourself in the Jordan.

Drop down to verse 14. We see he's finally pushed into it by his servants.

Verse 13 - And his servants came near and spoke to him, and said, "My father, if the prophet had told you to do something great, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, 'Wash, and be clean'?

Verse 14 - So he went down and dipped seven times in the Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.

Verse 15 - And he returned to the man of God, he and all his aides, and came and stood before him; and he said, "Indeed, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel; now, therefore -- and he goes on to talk about a gift he wants to give to Elisha. But he almost lost out on something special.

Are we ever losing out on something special because we think maybe the plan should be a little bit different? We want it to be our plan, rather than letting it be God's plan. So we need to seek God's plan. Seek the way that He wants to fulfill His fixes in us, through prayer, through Bible study, through fasting. These fixes may come in the form of trials. They may come in the form of tribulations. They may come in the form of a sermon or a sermonette, or a booklet, or fellowship with your brethren, and they may even come in the form of a miracle. But the key is that we need to be willing to allow God to fix us His way, according to His plan.

You know, in December, 2004, my wife and I woke up to a horrendous call. We woke up in the middle of the night. We were told that our son was dead. He was 22 years old. We'd no longer hear him play guitar. We'd no longer get his little awkward hugs. No longer have Friday night meals with him. There was no way I could fix that. There's no way my wife could fix it. No way anybody could fix it. But that trial, the biggest trial of my life, brought me to a deeper understanding of one of the most important lessons of my life, that there is only one true great fixer; that's God. He's the only one that can fix us. As human beings, Christ is the only one that paid the price for our sins. God's plan is the only plan that will work, and His plan will bring my son back, back to life to learn God's way. God and Jesus Christ truly are the great fixers. Everything else is temporary. Everything else is incomplete, but God has a plan, and that plan takes care of everything, and it's a wondrous plan.

So if you have infirmities now, it will be fixed. Financial troubles, it will be fixed. Lost a loved one, that will be fixed. This world has wars, constant strife and infighting, it will be fixed. Drug and alcohol and other addictions, they'll all be fixed. This earth's been abused, reached a point where it's beginning to look like it's not working quite the way it should; it will be fixed. The sin reigns in this world, that will be fixed. Satan spreads lust and greed and hatred and deceives, deceives the whole world; that will be fixed. Our sins are under the penalty -- or our lives are under the penalty for the sins that we have committed, that will be fixed.

God and Jesus Christ had a plan from the very beginning that took care of all these. Their plan was perfect. It never needed to a fix. God is perfect; he doesn't need a fix. Jesus Christ is perfect; he doesn't need a fix. It's us. It's we who need that fix. And that fix starts with the sacrifice of Jesus Christ that we look forward to on the Passover that begins that plan for the fixes that God plans for us, to become sons and Gods and daughters of Him, eternal with Him.